Potomac-area projects move along in C&O Canal Park

A National Park Service worker walks across a detour on the C&O Canal towpath that was built after Tropical Storm Hanna caused a 125 foot breach on the path in September 2008.

Potomac residents got a much-anticipated update about Potomac-specific maintenance projects in the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park last week.

Kevin Brandt, the park's superintendent, along with Matt Logan, president of the C&O Canal Trust, a fundraising group geared at the park, updated residents on March 11 at West Montgomery County Citizens Association monthly meeting about projects including repairing the towpath breach near Old Angler's Inn caused by Tropical Storm Hanna in September of 2008.

The project is one that could be in line for funds from the Obama administration's stimulus package, passed last month. In early February, the park highlighted priority projects in need of government funding which could be deemed "shovel-ready" within 18 months. The 125-foot towpath breach came in at number four. It followed other park projects including the restoration of the Catoctin Aqueduct, a historic structure in Frederick County that collapsed in 1973, and repairing a section of the towpath at Big Slackwater in Washington County.

The towpath breach isn't as "shovel-ready" as some of the projects, park officials have said, though the C&O Canal Trust is raising funds for the design and engineering work.

After the dust settled between House and Senate versions of the stimulus bill, nearly $6 million was left over for construction projects within the National Park Service as a whole. Which projects get what money will probably be decided by the end of May, and that decision will fall to the National Park Service, Logan said.

Last week, Brandt also spoke to the retaining wall proposed for Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder's River Road property. Snyder is footing the bill for the park to conduct an assessment of the environmental impact of repairing a failing retaining wall there, located on land that slopes toward the C&O Canal and within a scenic easement where building is usually not allowed.

When news of the plan first broke in November 2007, it caused controversy among Potomac environmentalists still reeling from Snyder's controversial cutting of more than 100 trees within the easement in 2004.

A draft of the environmental assessment should be released by Memorial Day, after which the public will be invited to comment on it, according to Brandt. "There has been a lot of work, but we're not quite at the point where we're going to release that to the public," Brandt said.

Another project that's nearly ready to go is the widening of the Great Falls entrance road and re-surfacing of the parking lot there. The project will result in wider shoulders to better accommodate bikers, Brandt said. Construction should begin this summer, Brandt said.

Welcome news for neighbors and frequent visitors to the park is that work may soon begin on four carbon filter odor reduction buildings that will help minimize the long-bemoaned stench from the Potomac Interceptor sewer line, operated by the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority. "It won't be long before summer is here, the humidity is high, and the odor from the Potomac Interceptor will be affecting our lives," Brandt said.

Two buildings will be located along the Clara Barton Parkway, one at Old Angler's Inn and one at the Little Falls Pump Station. The National Park Service is continuing to work with DCWASA on the buildings. "I'm cautiously optimistic we'll see work begin sometime mid-year," Brandt said.

Also at the meeting, Logan announced a new project the park hopes to take on to help maintain lockhouses along the canal and to give visitors a unique interpretive experience. The pilot project, known as Canal Quarters, will allow adventurous visitors to stay in certain lockhouses overnight and experience what canal life was really like during different eras.

The goal is to have three of the lockhouses — Lockhouse 6, Lockhouse 22 and Lockhouse 49 in Washington County — open to visitors by Memorial Day. Two others — Lockhouse 28 and Lockhouse 37 — would follow. "The best way to save a historic structure …is to actually use it," Logan told The Gazette.

The C&O Canal Trust is in need of volunteers for the new Canal Quarters project, which will allow adventurous visitors to stay in certain lockhouses overnight and experience what canal life was really like during different eras. For more information about contacting the group, visit www.canaltrust.org.